The presiding officer, the lord chancellor or lord keeper, was both spokesman for the crown and servant of the House.1 His function was determined by the ritual of parliament, by the personality of the monarch, and
by the temper of the times. It was defined also by the wishes of the
House, his own nature and training, his influence at court and elsewhere,
his parliamentary skills, and the regularity of his attendance.

When he presided over the high court of parliament and specifically
over the upper House, he acted and spoke for the crown, calling the
parliament into being on behalf of the king, conveying the king's wishes
to parliament, and adjourning or dissolving it at his command. On warrant from the king, the lord chancellor or lord keeper directed the clerks
of the Petty Bag office to prepare writs of summons and writs for elections.2 The lord chancellor himself sometimes attended without summons, sometimes was called by a special writ of assistance.3 Occasionally,
as in the case of Bishop Williams in 1624, he received two writs, the writ
of assistance and also his writ as bishop or, in the case of Edward Hyde,
Lord Clarendon, in 1660, his writ as baron.4 If the lord chancellor was
unable to attend the House, the king normally provided by commission
for a substitute, often one of the judges.5 In August 1641, on the day the
king left London for Scotland, the House formally asserted control over
its presiding officer, resolving that it might choose its own Speaker and
that he was not to depart from the House without leave. After the flight
of Lord Keeper Littleton to the king in May 1642, the House regularly
chose its presiding officer; and in 1660 the resolution of 1641 was reiterated and entered in the Standing Orders of the House.6

Like successive scenes from an illuminated manuscript, the ceremonies
of the opening days of parliament graphically depicted the position and
duties of the lord chancellor. He wore robes of black velvet, lined with
sable. He carried the symbol of his office, the great seal, in a sumptuous
purse 7 and was constantly attended by his sergeant-at-arms, who bore a

Notes for this page

Questia, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning. www.questia.comPublication information:
Book title: The House of Lords, 1603-1649:Structure, Procedure, and the Nature of Its Business.
Contributors: Elizabeth Read Foster - Author.
Publisher: University of North Carolina Press.
Place of publication: Chapel Hill, NC.
Publication year: 1983.
Page number: 28.

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